Prodding along the trail

Almost two years ago my Daddy joined his Father in rejoicing each and everyday. It wiped me clean off my feet. I knew it was , but I didn’t know what to do about it, or how to overcome it. I lived in a fog. I operated each day, but inside I was a mess. I told few how I felt, and hid my feelings as much as possible. The process of coming out of the fog has taken me a long time. Taking pictures was something I loved (and still do!) but it was hard. I know it is something my Daddy did and loved and I have the same love for it. Without my Dad here to see my pictures and tell me how much he loves them is hard. I let this little space on the web die a bit with him.
Slowly I’m coming back. Slowly I’m taking more and more pictures. Seeing life, seeing Gods most amazing earth through my lens. I marvel at the way God created this place and all of the minute details. It makes me smile deep in my soul. It draws me to Him, into a closeness with my creator.

Today I wanted to enjoy another beautiful sunny spring day here in Beautiful British Columbia so I asked Buddy to come along with me and the dog as we walked Hoy Creek trail!
While walking I saw things that made me smile, pause and experience God. I took out my iPhone and started taking pictures. It was refreshing, relaxing, enjoyable and made me feel like ME!

hoy creek coquitlam

It takes time to heal. It is different for each of us.

Some point along the trail my son said “Hey why don’t you put these pictures on your blog?”

my boy

That’s a great question…

hoy creek hatchery

One I’m working on….

One that for me is taking a bit more time…and prodding!

Buddy and Romeo

So today I took time to see you Father, to connect, to listen and hear you talk to me through my son. Thank you.

simple beauty

Heres to taking more pictures, seeing the beauty around us, and listening to our children.
Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

P.S. My ever so sweet and loving Father-in-Law gave me the most amazing lens and I LOVE it and need to use it more. He also shares my love of photography and is always encouraging me. For that I am so grateful. Double blessed, 2 dads, 2 who love taking pictures! My next walk will be with my favorite lens! Thanks G-pa.

Aug 10

summer 2014 camping!

We finally got out the camping gear and headed out for a weekend of fun!
We didn’t go far from home, but sure did find a good spot. The camp ground was clean, tons of families, campfires were welcomed, and it was on the river.
After arriving on Friday lunch time we set up camp, and sat down to chill! My favorite thing about camping. You have no reason to do much of anything other than chill and have fun!

Romeo the watch dog

Toska

For friday night dinner we made hobo packets in the fire and then had our favorite dessert…Banana with marshmallows and chocolate! We also wrapped them in foil and tossed them in the fire. Super yumminess!

dessert banana boats..YUM!

On Saturday we went on the trail to the lookout and found what turned out to be one the highlights of this weekend…..the river! Once we walked the 2k {mind you this is my first time walking more than around the house I’ve done in almost 2 weeks….I hurt my toe a bad one and have been on the couch 😦 } When Romeo and Toska caught a whiff of the river water and gray mud/clay river bank, they went NUTS!!!!! We laughed so hard watching them run, play, chase the crashing wake of boats, drink river water, bark and just go CRAZY!!!!

Dirty DOG!

White or Black???

River fun

doggy fun!

We weren’t sure how we were ever going to get Romeo clean. ( We did hose him off at the camp, but he is headed to the dog wash tomorrow!) We ended up tossing Toska in the dish washing sink and cleaning her at camp! IT was cold but she didn’t seem to mind 🙂

Dinner on Saturday was made fun thanks to our great friends..…they came had dinner, roasted marshmallows, and we rented to funkiest cool pedal bike things. We all took turns and sure did have fun cruising all over camp!

way cool pedal bikes

The girls got a bit silly around the camp fire after the sugar rush of dessert!!!!

campfire craziness!!!

I’m so glad my family likes to camp. I just love it and it really brings back so many fun memories of my childhood.
Hoping we go again soon…..

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

Jul 24

Coquitlam watershed tour

While looking for things to do this summer that are free or nearly free, I came across the Metro Vancouver website. It list all kinds of events from tours, to how to canoe, to many other topics. The one that first grabbed my attention was the watershed tours. You see we live off of a road named Pipeline Rd. And while out exploring the area one day we drove to the end of the road and were greeted with a DO NOT ENTER gate. I always wondered what was behind that gate because on the map it shows Coquitlam Lake. Well, I’m all about water and if you tell me a lake is about 2 miles from my house I want to see it!!! I was in luck…the watershed tour is of said lake!
I came to learn many a new thing today on the tour. Pipeline Road is named that because the main pipe leading from the watershed goes right down the middle of the road! Second back in the 1940’s they voted to colse off the local watershed and not allow the public to be in them. We currently have 3 in the metro Vancouver area. These areas are natural, beautiful and brimming with all of Gods critters great and small. And they are left to do what they want! So special. 🙂
We loaded on a school bus today and entered the “gates” and went on to learn all about how they get our water, and how they treat it.
While I would have LOVED to go on the tour when it was a nice, hot and fresh summer day…today was cold, rainy and full of fog! But Gator and I made the best of it and enjoyed ourselves.

A HUGE thank you to my ever so wonderful Father-In-Love for gifting me with an amazing camera lens. It sure didn’t let me down on this rather odd day! Thanks G-pa 🙂
First part of the tour was on the back side of the dam, and they have created a salmon habitat.

salmon habitat

Next we stopped on the top of the dam and looked out over the lake and at the water intake tower. circa 1913

Metro Vancouver intake building, built 1913

Then we drove to the tower and were able to walk around it. So neat! (As you can see the weather was wet and cold and Gator has on a winter coat and hat!)

view from intake building

iew from intake building

We traveled up the mountain to see the view from the top…but along the way we stopped for a small nature walk into the rainforest. Beautiful!

At the top!

view from top of Coquitlam Lake on a fog filled day!

tree tops amidst the fog

My favorite shot from the top was little guy…can I say it again…I love my camera and my most amazing lens!

We made the drive back down and when were almost about to exit we saw these 2!!!

mama

baby

tree tops amidst the fog

A fun free activity on this not so nice summer day!

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

P.S. I’m not a trained photographer, and I have not edited them in anyway. Photos are taken using a Sony NEX-5 camera. These are straight off my camera and into this post! I just love capturing Gods great creations. 🙂

Oct 29

Sunshine at the lighthouse

Way back in August my camera buddy was in town. Guitar Man had mentioned a really cool park along the North Shore of West Vancouver that he thought we could take some awesome pictures at. We waited until it was a sunny and glorious day and headed on over to check it out.

After a short but kinda steep (well that is if you walk out of the house and forget that you are wearing a very thin and flimsy pair of flip-flops!) hike we saw this!

The best part was taking pictures along side this wonderful man!

G-Pa/Camera Buddy/Father-In-Love

Sep 17

New Camera Lens!

Lots of things have happen since my last posting, but one very cool and wonderful thing is I was given a new lens! I CAN NOT believe it!!!!
(Yes, I cried 🙂 )
A few pictures with my new toy!

ballet

Gator and Romeo

little friend

my feet!

Coquitlam River

Gator at the river

Dec 30

Sunflowers @ Colony Farms

Sunflower

Sunflower @ Colony Farms

This fall we were able to have a small plot at a local community farm. Colony Farms is just a few steps from the Frasier River and sits in a very low-lying area that offers fantastic views of mountains and blue skies. (that is in the summer months!!!) We enjoyed our garden and were able to have a few squash, yellow peppers, raspberries,, potatoes, eggplant, and more weird cross pollinated zucchini/spaghetti squash! yuck! 😦

The best part of the farm for me was the many, many framers who had spectacular sunflowers!

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower <

Aug 6

Crystal Falls

It’s been a bit since I have posted here…Sorry!
This summer has been a great one for us. The kids and I traveled to Florida for 3 weeks and had a ton of fun with family. Then it was back home and G-pa came to visit for 9 days.
Lots of fun and great memories!

Today is a holiday here in BC and we decied to take advantage of Guitar Man not working and head up the road to Crystal Falls. It is an easy walk from our house and I was so excited to see what it had to offer.
Of course it didn’t let me down….

The Fam @ Crystal Falls

The Fam

GM and Gator

Gator at Crystal Falls

My Man

What a fun afternoon of hiking!

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

Jun 9

Burke Mountain

Falls @ Burke Mountain

We hiked Burke Mountain Trail this morning and it was beautiful!
Once again we meet up with our friends The Howe’s and hiked for about 5 hours!
It has been raining all week here so the trail was super wet and mushy, but we had such great views and fun with friends it was worth it!!!

A few pictures from the hike.
(if you want to see a larger size photo just click on the photo)

: Our View Durning our Lunch Stop

: Falls @ Burke Mountain

: Trillium Flower

: Along the Hike

: creek rocks Burke Mountain

: Woodpecker holes

: look-out along the trail

: fungus

: hiking Burke Mountain

: fungus

: burnt out tree

: kids on the largest tree stump

We had a wonderful time and look forward to visiting this hike again when the ground is a bit drier!

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

May 22

Camping in BC

This past weekend was a long holiday weekend, honoring Victoria Day, and our family was invited to go camping with The Howe family. The weather was perfect and the scenery was breath-taking. I was so overwhelmed by God’s beauty. He has created some of the most amazing and beautiful places.

Our camping experience was unique in that you can only access the camping area by canoe or kayak. You have to head out across Pitt River Lake and up a canal about 1 hour to find Widgeon Provincial Park and camp area. It was a very nice day on Saturday, the sun was shining and the temperature was about 15*. We were able to fit all of our camping gear and the four of us in one canoe. Miracles do happen!!!

Once we reached Widgeon we set up camp. Guitar Man and Buddy were excited to have the opportunity to use the hammock tents we had purchased a Christmas ago.

GM in his Hennessy Hammock

Gator in the girl tent!

This was the view up the river and down the river at Widgeon.

view from our tent

After we set up camp and had some grub….

Lunch time for the Howe fam!

Then it was time to hike to Widgeon Falls. It was a light hike and the views along the way were fab!

small creek down the side of the trail

blue-green water in the river

view at our “snack” stop!

group hiking photo

Once we had gone about 45 min or so we reached Widgeon Falls!

The Wingo Fam!

Sunflower and sweet Gator!

I can not begin to tell you how wonderful it was to see these falls. They are breathtaking. When you sit on the rocks you can hear AND feel the power of the water. It was just amazing! We all had a wonderful rest and time of quite to enjoy the falls. The kids had fun building rock statues and climbing around.

Our walk back to camp…..

HUGE tree stump

GM and the bus walking back to camp

Although we only stayed for one night it was fabulous! We are blessed with great friends and are thankful they invited us to go camping. 🙂

Grace and Peace,
Sunflower

Apr 29

A walk in the park

One house over from ours is a trail that leads to our neighborhood park called Nester Park. A few weeks ago I went on a walk and this is what I found.

And of course I had my sweet Romeo with me!!!